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Allegheny Unitarian Universalist Church
Background * 416 Est North Ave, Pittsburgh, PA One of two Unitarian Universalist congregations in the city and six in the county. Insights History and Design of the Church Building Beginning in December 1905, a series of Sunday evening meetings were held in Allegheny City to consider organizing a Unitarian society. The Second Unitarian Church was officially formed by a vote of the charter members of May 6, 1906. The congregation continued to hold their services on Sunday evenings in Allegheny's Carnegie Hall, but by year's end they were taking steps to acquire their own place of worship. On December 11, 1906, a site for a new church building was secured at the corner of West North Avenue and Resaca Place. In July 1907, the Commonwealth granted the congregation a charter as the North Side Unitarian Church. Architect R. Maurice Trimble, from a prominent Allegheny City family, was then commissioned to produce the design for the new building. The drawings were ready by September 15, 1907 at which time the congregation unanimously voted to approve the plans as presented by Mr. Trimble. After nearly two years of fund raising, ground was broken for the new church on July 8, 1909. The building permit, issued in the City of Pittsburgh (Allegheny City having been annexed in 1907), was recorded July 22. It indicated that there would be built a stone church with slate roof, sized 41 feet wide by 73 feet deep, one story in height, J.M. Poorbaugh was builder, and all at a cost of $15,000. The Services dedicated the new church building took place in the morning and evening of February 6, 1910. Architecture The Gothic Revival entered its final phase in the years after 1890. In England, church designers began to reassess the Perpendicular, that last phase of medieval English Gothic which had been largely ignored by the earlier Gothic Revivalists. In the hands of some of the more innovative designers,the Perpendicular style was then transformed into a kind of 'Free Gothic,' with building elements combined in nontraditional ways. In addition, the Arts & Crafts movement was also having an influence on design, Gradually, the High Victorian Gothic of the mid-century gave way to this Gothic that turned back to English medieval precedents as a basis for contemporary design. During this same period, denominations in the United States were experiencing unprecedented growth. Many published plan books illustrating Gothic Revival designs for their new and expanding congregations. Originally, the Gothic Revival had been promoted in the liturgical denominations, but it eventually emerged as the preferred style in many non-liturgical denominations as well. In 1902, the American Unitarian Association published its Plans for Churches with a number of commissioned designs by Edwin J. Lewis, Jr, (1859-1937) of Boston, a well-known designer of Unitarian churches in the Gothic Revival style. The Lewis examples in the plan book are based upon medieval English parish churches. Entrance porches, half-timbered gable ends, and sturdy two-story towers were common elements in these designs. The return to actual medieval precedents as a basis for developing a contemporary architecture was the hallmark of the late Gothic Revival. It was in this context that R.M. Trimble was commissioned to prepare drawings of the North Side Unitarian Church in 1907. His one previous church commission, St. Thomas Episcopal Church, Oakmont, was a study in the west-tower form of the English parish church. For the North Side Unitarian Church, Trimble again drew upon similar precedents but developed a distinctive architectural expression. An understanding of this expression can be gained by examining the major elements of the building. The church walls are of random ashlar, quarry-faced stone. The roof is composed of large cross-gables whose ends are faced with decorative half-timbering. The eaves are finished with bargeboards framed into octagonal pendants at the peaks. The three large stained glass windows are flat headed, and are centered just below the gable ends. This configuration, including the rectilinear window tracery and the half-timbering, was inspired by Perpendicular-style architecture. The church's timber-framed porch was a later addition to the design. Entrance porches, with their roots in medieval English church architecture, are a feature normally reserved for a more open setting (the porches illustrated in the Plans for Churches are featured on buildings in open sites). At this urban corner the porch still functions traditionally as a transition space between the busy outside world and the quiet church interior. Other distinctive characteristics of the architecture are observed in the design of the tower and in the overall massing of the church. The solidly-proportioned tower is topped with a variation on the broached spire. The spire is set between corner drum turrets and breaks downward to form deep, bracketed overhangs for the tower's glazed second story. This spire form is similar to those topping the small medieval churches of Normandy and Brittany, while the turrets are of Tudor design inspiration. The relationship between the tower, the porch and the building mass creates a dynamic composition on the site. The architecture draws inspiration from medieval parish churches, but is very much of its time and location. This is a building both expressive of its religious purposes through the use of style, and at home in its residential neighborhood through careful proportioning and massing. Church Interior Unlike many Unitarian churches of its time (and those illustrated in the AUA';s Plans for Churches), the Allegheny church is of the auditorium type with curved pews and no center aisle. This arrangement may be due to the architect's personal familiarity with Presbyterian auditorium plans or the congregation's history of holding services (albeit one with a center aisle). The simply-designed spaces do feature some decorative elements such as the Tudor four-centered arch used in the chancel and chancel window, and the faux-timbered ceiling. The parlor fireplace, the stair rails, and the glazed interior doors show the influence of the Arts & Crafts style which is complimentary to the more traditional Tudor detailing. The west auditorium window was presented to the congregation by the family of Dr. William Judson Riggs (1849-1909). In the mid-1990s, the west and south windows were recreated to the original designs and the Riggs dedication pane was re-leaded into its former location. It is the only piece of original glass in the new west window. Architect Robert Maurice Trimble was born in the old Sixth Ward of Allegheny City in 1871. Trimble's family had been in the construction business since his grandfather moved to Allegheny from Butler County. After graduating Allegheny High School, and some study at Western University of Pennsylvania, Trimble apprenticed with architect Frederick J. Osterling beginning in 1898, and the North Side Unitarian Church was among his earliest commissions. Some of his other churches and public buildings include: * St Thomas Memorial Church - 1907 * Ben Avon United Presbyterian Church, 1911 * Sarah Heinz House, 1913 * UP Community House, 1961 * North Side YMCA, 1926 * Perry High School, 1931 Instruments of Music The church organ is a documented Carnegie donation dating from 1914. Records of the Estey Organ Company (Brattleboro, Vermont), show that this organ, Opus 1279, was build for the North Side Unitarian Church. At the time that the instrument was designed, the pipe organ superintendent at Estey was William E. Haskell, a well-known organ builder and developer of innovative stops. The small, eight-rank instrument has two manual and a pedal. The tubular pneumatic action is typical of Estey organs. The Steinway patent Grand piano ante-dates the church by some seventeen years, having been built in 1893. It was presented to the congregation in the 1960s by the estate of former Church organist, Mary Sundholm Category:Religion